Chapter 4
Eric sighted down the barrel of his rifle. "Shit."
"What do you see?" Drake asked.
"It's a warzone down there. I've got two Phantom dropships moving away from the transmitter platform. I'd say there's about a dozen contacts down there. Amongst those crates" Eric paused to listen; it wasn't just plasma fire he was hearing, automatic weapons were going off too. Then he saw it. "I've got confirmed resistance, Small arms fire. It's coming from the cave entrance over there." He pointed, and sure enough, he could see several muzzle flashes as fire returned from the cave entrance.
"They don't have long," Kel said, "We must not waste time. Eric can provide sniper support, we will draw their fire."
Eric would have argued, he would have gone into the firefight first in a heartbeat. He was a former ODST afterall, but Kel had a plan, and even Drake seemed to like it, despite his distaste for non-humans.
"Let's go," he said."
Eric nestled himself in the rocks as he rested his sniper rifle in a small notch in the stone. He sighted down the scope and looked to where Kel and Drake had gone to. They were already nearing the firefight and preparing their attack from the rear.
He let his crosshair land on the head of one of the Jackals and squeezed the trigger. The signature crack of the rifle went off just as a needle round went through another's head.
Drake let out a hail of bullets as he advanced out in the open on the now ten-strong group. The man's insane. Despite his thoughts to the contrary. The former marine hadn't been shot once. He stepped back into cover behind a rock just as plasma fire rocked his position.
Eric re-sighted to one of the Jackals carrying a yellow point defense gauntlet. The shield was stronger than the other models his companions were carrying, but it also marked him out from the crowd. Whether he was the squad leader or not, he was going to die. Due to the angle that Eric was at, he had only a partially obstructed shot. For him, it was as simple as pulling the trigger.
The round punched through the shieldbearer's neck, spraying the comrade next to him in purple gore. The stunned, blood-covered Jackal brought his shield up just in time to deflect the next shot, avoiding the fate of his previous brother. The former ODST didn't get a third shot as plasma fire slammed into his position. He ducked down just as a bolt wizzed over his head, scorching the ozone and burning his nostrils.
Through a new crack in the rock, where a plasma bolt had impacted, Eric saw his assailant get gunned down as three blamite crystals stuck themselves into the Jackal and exploded, sending bits and pieces scattering across the platform. Eric rose to return the favor as he plugged another one aiming at Kel.
Drake at this point had removed himself from cover and was advancing again. The marine had a happy trigger finger as he laid down suppressing fire, making the remaining Jackals duck down behind something other than their shields. A round from the other side managed to pierce one of the Kig-Yar in the back, blowing his guts straight out the front. Drake lit into the other one that had gone in vain to help his comrade.
One far more pragmatic Jackal, another one of those dinosaurs, jumped up to fire at the blood-crazed marine. This time, when I shoot you, you're going to stay down. Eric pumped a round into the reptillian's head.
Another shot from behind managed to fell the second as Drake got within feet of the remaining three. Kel came up from the flank and fired wildly, one shot managing to strike her victim in the thigh. Drake slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of the skull of another one and Eric had no doubt that if his ears hadn't been ringing from the gunfire, he would have heard the crack of bone from his position a hundred feet away.
Kel fired another needle into the injured Jackal's skull just as a rifle round from the defenders downed the last assailant with a shot through the heart. Eric smiled at the shock and awe tactics. The enemy didn't even know what hit them. Who even is our enemy? He briefly wondered. Eric was about to stand up when a speck of movement caught his eye. The Jackal that had been trying to hold in his guts was still doing so with one hand, but in the other, he was holding a plasma pistol; and he was pointing it at Kel.
In the instant it took Eric to recognize the threat, his crosshairs were already lined up and he squeezed the trigger. The Jackal's head split open like a melon, spraying out gore, bone, and viscera. It exploded just like a miniature grenade as Kel jumped in fright. Eric decided that he wasn't going to tell her how close to death she had just come.
"Sorry, guy wasn't dead yet."
"Right," Kel replied, calming down slightly.
By the time Eric had left his position in the rocks and made his way down to the rest of the group, the previously concealed defenders showed themselves. Only three of the former marines were left. Drake was already heading towards them, obviously concerned.
"Jagger, Khovostov, Conner, how many are left?"
Jagger stepped up . He was covered in dirt, but he otherwise looked more or less intact. "No idea, they're hitting us from all sides. Maybe just a few are dead, maybe half the dig site. We haven't been able to make contact with anyone."
"Shit." Drake looked around him, as if expecting more hostiles to materialize around him. For once, he didn't have a plan.
Nof sat in the Phantom's troop bay as it hurtled toward the drop zone. The opposition was in chaos, but that didn't mean that they weren't taking casualties. Overhead beams flashed all around him, reflecting the light off of the cold metal of the dropship's interior. Warriors sat arrayed in rows as restraints locked them in place from turbulence. In total, there were ten of them, each and every one ready for the carnage that was already unfolding.
"What's the status on the east flank?" he asked over his communicator.
The comms crackled back as he heard Gaz's voice answer. "Delta lance is gone commander. We're moving to intercept."
"No, hold back and wait for my ground team. Over and out."
He looked around at the drop bay, glancing at the other members sitting around him. Each was armed and trained for extensive combat. Every warrior was equipped with a plasma pistol, comlink, a pair of plasma grenades, and an EVA combat harness equipped with rocket packs; except for him of course. No, he preferred heavier armor. For that, he wore a much thicker carapace armor, fitted with interlocking plates. In addition, four of their number carried the accurate and lethal type 72 carbine, a weapon even chosen over the much dreaded and beloved needler rifle.
Nof took a glance down. The Ibie'shan looked at his feet, silently inspecting the light shining off of the indigo floor of the troop bay. We really need to repaint that, he decided. He hated purple.
"Val, what's the ETA?" he asked the pilot over the comms.
"One minute out."
He looked back up at his command lance. "Alright people, remember, we're here to clear the area, so don't go doing anything else. We have others here to pick up the relics. We just need to keep them from getting shot."
Gods please let nobody get shot. He thought the thought about everyone as a group, but in the back of his mind, Nof was only picturing one individual. A brief flash of his mate's face flashed through his mind as his jaw muscles tensed. Ten minutes to clear a landing zone was more than enough.
"Keep your heads down. I don't want to write another long casualty report to the boss today.
"What commander?" One of his rangers asked. "Afraid Syn's going to dump you if ya screw up?"
"No Zhan," he replied, "but I really don't want to have her look at your already ugly mug after half your face has been blown off." The other rangers chuckled at their comrade's expense and he laughed with them. "So, keep your helmets on and your shields up.
"What about you commander?" another asked.
"What?"
"Where's your helmet?"
"I've been in a headbutting contest with a Jiralhanae chieftain," he replied. "I think I can take a bullet or two."
"Thirty seconds!" Val's voice shouted over the comms.
Every warrior gripped their weapon tighter. Nof activated his personal shield and unclipped his needler from his belt. "Alright, out of your restraints, stand at the door, shields up front."
The command lance obeyed as they moved, unclasping their restraints and moving to the door in unison. "Twenty seconds!" Val's voice called out.
Nof glanced around. Syn's image flashed through his mind again. I'll see her again, he thought to himself reassuringly as he steeled his psyche. He had been in far worse than this.
"Ten seconds!"
Faces tensed, backs arched, and the shield-bearers up front brought their point-defense gauntlets into position.
"Five, four, three, two, one!"
The bay doors opened and the rangers stormed out in a fury, trying to find cover. Luckily for them, it mattered little whether they found any or not. Not a single shot rang out in response and all they heard was the roar of the phantom's engines as it flew away, back to the corvette from whence it came.
"Any targets?" he asked.
"None sir," came the reply.
"Then we link up with Sigma Lance and move out."
As if on cue, two figures appeared from the crags to his left of the landing zone. A T'vaoan in commando armor approached him alongside a blood-drenched Ibie'shan. Both of them looked scuffed, but neither looked seriously injured in any measurable way.
"Gaz, Otten, status."
The commando looked to the commander with a grimace tearing at the edges of his face. "Sigma Lance is gone and we're all that's left of the scouts."
"Shit."
"Come on, we heard gunshots up this way," he said, pointing ahead of him. Nof could briefly make out the first glimpses of sandblasted metal over the craggy rocks that lay before them. He briefly looked back to the rangers around him before gesturing the group forward, a single clawed finger flying into the air.
"Lead the way."
Kel looked down the narrow, winding tunnel. She could still hear distant gunfire echoing throughout the halls every now and then, but for the most part it was dying down. She still didn't know if that was a good or bad thing however. On one hand there was less fighting. On the other, it meant that there were probably fewer contractors.
She glanced ahead, in front of her. Eric, Drake, and Khovostov were up front. Eric had already traded out his sniper rifle for a lighter DMR that he had pilfered off of a contractor's corpse. Behind her, Jagger and Conner brought up the rear. Already though, she was beginning to like Jagger. He was quiet and to the point. Good shot too. Suddenly, she had begun to wish that she had hung out with the contractor more.
Her combat claustrophobia had kicked in earlier, but ironically enough, the bodies pressing against her had helped relieve it somewhat. At least people had her back. Tunnels pressed in all around them, water-swept rocks carving themselves in the patterns of a winding snake.
The plan, if the hastily drawn up idea for survival could even be called such, was to collect anyone they could and make their way to the hanger bay on the east side of the digsite. There, a slipspace capable Condor transport ship awaited. There, they could fly off this heaven-forsaken rock and make a faster-than-light jump to a civilized world.
That was the hope anyway. Whether or not the Condor was still in one piece remained to be seen. "We should hit the command center," Drake said from up front. "See if anyone's still alive, then we can cut through the tunnels to the Condor."
Kel made a mental map of the place in her head. Yes, that could work.
The group as a whole made no sign of assent, although it felt like a general acceptance of the plan. When Drake took a left, all followed. If anyone was still alive, they'd all be at the command center. It was a defensible position with several chokepoints and while it allowed for an excellent defense, those choke points worked both ways. Still, she wouldn't mind saving them. She quite liked Kav, that other T'vaoan, and if she could help him get out alive, she wouldn't be remiss about it.
A brief image flashed through her head at that thought; blood everywhere, her cloven heels drenched in blue gore as she walked over a mountain of bodies. She looked back to the remains of her squad. She had to be strong. If not for the Sangheili watching, then for them.
"Kel, are you good?" Jagger asked.
She realized that she had started to physically wobble. "Yes."
No.
Blood was still pounding in her ears. She remembered Arcadia: the hill, the fields… The city. She shook her head. Kel had no time for wallowing in self-pity. She had to push forward.
Syn let her feet touch down onto the dirt. She didn't particularly care about the objections for her safety, not when she had lost a dozen men in a single opening exchange. She let one of her thumbs brush over the plasma repeater she had holstered at her side. With luck, she wouldn't need it. The weapon was a smaller and lighter model than those used by the Sangheili, though it more than made up for it with its potential rate of fire. On its highest setting, the weapon could spit out a blistering amount of rounds, and subsequently burn through its battery in seconds.
She looked down to her chief engineer. Despite everything that she'd been through, Tal still had an air of whimsicalness to her. Years ago, she had been horribly burnt in an engine fire while they had been trying to escape from the Covenant so long ago. Despite the medical technology they had on hand, the Rhuutian still had several burn scars starting on the left side of her face, and moving down the entire left side of her body. Syn, to this day, felt no small amount of guilt in the role she had played in that event and it only compounded as she looked the Kig-Yar in her eye, the normal lines around it gone from where it had once been melted shut.
Still, the shipmistress didn't show her thoughts to the world as she spoke. "Get the salvage teams out. Let's get these relics into our hold." The engineer shifted her form. She was a whole head shorter than most other Rhuutians, being only about as tall as an Unggoy. Her posture didn't help, what with her practically living in the engine room, she kept an almost perpetually hunched pose.
"Got it," Tal replied, gesturing to those behind her. "You heard the boss. Take anything that looks weird or is glowing too brightly. Try not to get too close to the designated hot zones. I don't need my engineers breathing through any new holes." The others moved on at that, but Syn stayed behind as she thumbed on her comlink. "Nof, status?"
There was a brief pause before he responded. "The landing area is clear. I'm sending teams down to clear out the lower levels. I'm heading up."
"Affirmative… Don't die."
"Never do. Out."
Syn followed after the rest of her men. Today was going to be a long day. The faces of several of her men flashed through her eyes. All dead. Again she said the same motto she always did. It's nothing personal.
